Made Alive
by rory-put-hitler-in-cupboard
Summary: Castiel Novak hasn't had an easy college life. After his parents disowned him when he came out to them and now only his brother speaks to him and having gotten bullied at North Western university, Cas decides it might be time to transfer. So when he goes to University of Chicago at the beginning of his junior year every thing changes when he meets Dean Winchester
1. Chapter 1

**Made Alive **

Castiel looked at the door. It said room number 189 just like his information sheet but there was a girl in the room, she was about 5'1", dirty blonde hair, slightly curvy, hazel green eyes, button nose, cupids bow lips and wearing a "_I am sherlocked_" hoodie and jeans along with red converse. She looked up when she saw him in the doorway

"Hi you must be Dean's new roommate!", she said somewhat cheerfully, "I'm Sam, his friend"

"um, my name is Castiel. Is…Dean here?" he was hoping that this Dean guy wasn't going to have his girlfriend or whatever around all the time

"Yeah he's just getting his last box out of the car, and don't worry I'm justing helping him move in then we'll probably be out of here", she added as if she could read Castiel's mind. Just then a man walked in carrying a cardboard box of what looked like cassette tapes, he was a little taller than Castiel, he had the same dirty blondish color hair as Sam, with a smattering of stubble on his face, a leather jacket, button up shirt, a band t-shirt and his eyes, goddamn those eyes. They were the color of grass in the summer sun, of candy apples or emeralds, and they shone in the bad campus dorm room lighting like the most beautiful things Castiel had ever seen. It was going to take all his strength to not get lost in those eyes.

"Hey Dean, this is your roommate, Castiel" Sam said from her position on Dean's bed

"Hi my name's Dean as I guess you've gathered", Dean said as he held out a hand for Castiel to shake. Castiel took it and shook. Dean's hands had callouses but were still oddly smooth and warm. "Me and Sam are gonna finish unpacking our rooms and then later we're going out to dinner you wanna join us?", Dean asks casually, as if Castiel isn't just some stranger he just met

"Uh sure I guess" Castiel really didn't feel like talking much and he really hoped Dean would just finish unpacking and then leave, even though it was his room also and he had a right to be there, Castiel just wanted a little peace and quiet his first day of junior year

"Alright awesome we'll pick you up at 6:00" Dean said and then less than five minutes later he and Sam were gone. Castiel sank onto his bed exhausted. He didn't think transferring schools would be just as stressful as it had been entering college freshman year, but he guessed that the fact that University of Chicago had a completely different atmosphere from what he was used to at North Western might be a factor in the stress. Also the fact that he had a _very_ attractive guy as his roommate, who was clearly take, didn't help at all. Castiel got up off his bed and decided to start unpacking his stuff. He hadn't honestly brought that much stuff but it was still enough that it would take at least twenty minutes to fit everything in the room. He opened his first box which had sheets, a comforter, pillow and a throw blanket for the bed. After he did that he started unpacking his clothes and putting them in the small closet provided for him. Next was the textbooks, he put these on the book shelf above the desk, or in the desk itself. After he did that then he got to his personal effects. First he took out his small blue radio which he plugged in and also put on his desk, along with his laptop and a desktop lamp he'd brought from his old dorm, which was covered in all kinds of nerdy stickers such as "_I break for hobbits" _and "_adopt a tribble today!" _after that he put his alarm clock on the small bedside table, and put all of his non-school related books on the bottom shelf of that, then finally his small amount of art supplies. His family had never really encouraged that much extracurricular stuff except for maybe the odd music lesson, but they'd stopped talking to him anyways so might as well enjoy himself. Castiel spent the next hour sketching how the light hit different areas of the room and starting his reading for English class, when right at 6:00 Dean Winchester came in and as promised dragged Castiel out of the dorm room and out onto campus where Sam and some guy (6' dark hair greenish grey eyes, jeans, button up black leather jacket) were waiting by a tree

"Cas," Dean said, and Castiel decided to no correct him on the nickname "this is Sam's boyfriend Andrew, he's also a junior here except he's a science major"

"Pleased to meet you" Andrew said as he held out a hand for Castiel to shake

"So where are we going for dinner?" Sam asked, "We could go to Salonica, the Valois, Z & H, Medici, etc"

"How about Salonica, that way we can show Cas Powell's" Dean said,

"Do you mean the book shop Powell's?" Castiel asked surprised

"Yeah do you know it?" Andrew leaned on Sam as he said this, which was quite comical seeing how he was at least a foot taller than her

"Yes my job application there just went through, I start work Wednesday" this launched an interesting discussion about whether or not Powell's was a key part of Hyde Park's heritage or just another book shop and before they knew it they had walked the few blocks to 57th street. They walked to a building that was at the opposite end of the street as Powell's, the building had a blue and brown awning with the word _Salonica_ written in a pretty white font. The inside of the building was just as charming with a diner like style and a counter at the front that sold mints, gum, candy, cigarettes etc.

Maybe, Castiel thought as they were seated, college wouldn't be as bad here, he'd already made what seemed to be a circle of friends and the fact that one of them was rather attractive and possibly single didn't hurt either.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter two _

Castiel woke to the sound of his alarm clock yelping its two notes over and over again.

"ugghhghhhh" Castiel groaned as he reached over to turn it off. It had been two days since he had arrived at UFC and met Dean and his cast of friends, but after the dinner at the Salonica, he had seen very little of his roommate, except when Dean came to get his books or to sleep. Dean also usually left before Castiel woke up in the morning.

Except for today

"mmh….Cas turn that thing off" Dean mumbled sleepily from his side of the room. After the initial surprise of seeing Dean at all Castiel took a moment to take in Dean's appearance. Dean was clearly either sick or hung over and given that Castiel hadn't seen him come in it was probably the latter.

"Come on get up" Castiel instructed as pulled the covers off of Dean

"Whhhyyyyy" Dean whined

"Because," Cas said "sitting around isn't going to help your hangover and you," Castiel pushed Dean into the bathroom to shower and change, "need to get to class later"

Castiel quickly made his bed and got out his clothes for the day while Dean was in the shower. He tried not to think about the fact that he was helping Dean even though he hardly knew him, but Dean had done the same thing for Castiel earlier that week. Cas thought back to the night when Dean, Sam and Andrew had taken him out to dinner. They had shown him around the neighborhood and shown him all the bookstores and coffee shops where he could work on school work without getting kicked out. It was one of the first times lately when he had actually felt at home in a group of people, besides his siblings Anna and Gabriel of course. He thought back to the fight with his family, how they had told him to fix this _"problem"_ or to leave the Novak household. For good. Dean must have gotten out of the shower while Castiel was in his reverie Dean must have gotten out of the shower because a second later he heard him say,

"Hey Cas showers all yours, forgot my clothes so I'll just get changed out here while you take your shower and stuff" When Castiel turned around Dean was soaking wet and only had a towel covering his waist and below. Castiel grabbed his clothes and tried to hide the fact that he had an erection as he made his way to the bathroom. When he had showered and put his clothes on he went out of the bathroom to the sight of Dean waiting for him on his bed.

"So you want to go get breakfast?" Dean asked casually

"Sure" Castiel replied as he grabbed his coat and let Dean lead the way out of their dorm and off campus, seeing as he knew it better. Dean walked to the street where his car was parked. It amused Castiel how much Dean loved the car, he referred to it as his "baby" and the classic 67' Chevy Impala was clearly very well taken care of seeing as the old car had a perfect paint job and started perfectly on the first try. They drove the mile or so to The Valois on 53rd street in companionable silence, with the radio playing 97.9, Chicago's classic rock station.

When they reached their destination they both got out of the car and Castiel followed Dean into the building he had pointed out. The restaurant was like a cafeteria in its setup, where you would grab a tray get in line, order, and as you moved along the servers would give you your order, but the food was definitely not cafeteria food. There was pancakes, eggs, hot or cold sandwiches, sausages and so much more, and almost everything was five dollars or under, which sort of made it the perfect breakfast restaurant. The line moved incredibly fast, even though there was a large number of people in line.

"Cas why don't you go grab us a table" Dean said as they were in line, because the tables were indeed filling up, "I have your order, so don't worry"  
"Okay" Castiel replied as he shuffled out from the line to find a table to fit the two of them. He found one by the front of the restaurant, and it wasn't too long until Dean came over with a tray of food, and as promised he hadn't screwed up what Castiel wanted.

"So," Dean said as they started to eat their food, "What made you want to transfer" Castiel thought a moment before answering and then he said

"Well I had been going to NorthWestern because it's what my family wanted but they stopped speaking to me so now I'm here"

"If you don't mind me asking, why isn't your family speaking to you?" Dean said through a mouthful of steak and eggs

"It's sort of a long story but if you really want to hear it I'll tell you"

"Hey you don't have to tell it if you're uncomfortable" Dean said in a comforting tone

"No it's just…" Castiel inhaled and exhaled slowly before continuing "It's just I don't want to throw all my baggage on you"

"Cas, I asked, you're not throwing anything on me" Castiel couldn't express how much he was grateful for Dean in this moment, because this relative stranger was offering to hear Castiel's problems just because he wanted to be nice

"Ok" he said quietly "Well, um, my family is sort of religious, but not completely creepy religious with crosses on everything but just sort of…" Castiel trailed off not sure of the right word.

"I get what you mean, go on" Dean smiled slightly

"Ok, so yeah they're religious and stuff and my family has always had a very concrete idea of what me and my siblings were going to do in life, they wanted me to be a doctor in fact, um and whenever one of us would go against what they wanted for us in any way, well let's just say it never ended well"

"They didn't beat you did they?" the concern Dean felt for him was obvious on his face and Castiel felt guilty for making him think that

"No no physical violence, just being grounded or in the worst case scenario, my brothers Gabriel and Lucifer were disowned, Gabriel for more understandable reasons than Lucifer. So um when I came back to visit the summer between my freshman and sophomore year I told them I didn't want to go to med school when I left college, and let's just say it did not go well. They threatened to stop paying for my college so I did what I had to do, I told them that I would continue with what they wanted but the next semester I dropped most of my medical classes and instead took more English and writing classes, but I kept enough medical and science classes that they wouldn't be suspicious. I also didn't tell them that I was gay until the next summer,"

"Wait," Dean interrupted, "You couldn't even tell them that you were gay? Man that's not good parenting"

"I will admit that they were not very considerate of our opinions but they did give us a good education and a roof over our heads"

"How many siblings did you have anyways?"

"Five, one sister named Anna and four brothers, Gabriel, Michel, Lucifer and Balthazar, now if you don't have any more questions I would like to continue my story"

"No go right ahead" Dean said

"Ok well things didn't start to get bad until I went home the next summer. They had realized that I was turning more towards and English degree rather than a medical one and they were not happy about it. I probably shouldn't have also chosen that vacation to come out to them but I did and what's done is done"

"How did they react?" Dean asked, genuinely interested in Castiel's life

"They said that either I went to a workshop to "cure my disease" or I left the household. I chose the latter. Gabriel heard what had happened and helped me get in contact with my grandmother, who had taken in Gabriel and helped him pay for his remaining years of school and she helped me too. But I didn't want to go back to where I was so I came here, which is a better school for English degrees and it would help me get away from my family and closer to Gabriel, who lives in Ukrainian Village."

Dean was silent for a moment but then he spoke, "Geez Cas that's not right, a family I supposed to accept you, not fucking disown you when you don't want to be what they think is right."

"I know" Castiel sighed "But it's what happened and I can't change it. What I can do however, is make the most of it. For example, now I can choose whatever career I want and I can date whoever I want."

"Well" Dean said as he started clearing their dishes "There's only one way to help when your family disowns you"

"And what is that" Castiel questions

"Food"

And that is how they ended up at Treasure Island at 9:00 in the morning with a shopping cart full of groceries but mostly chocolate, cake, and cookies.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter three_

"You're thinking about him aren't you?"

Dean looked up from his space on the floor of Sam's dorm room. Sam was currently sitting at her desk typing away on her laptop.

"I'm not thinking about Cas _for the last time_"

Sam turned towards Dean, her messy bun bouncy as she did so

"_Dean, _I've known you since high school, I know when you're smitten with someone"

Dean sighed, Sam was right. Ever since he had met Castiel he couldn't get his mind off him. For one thing his eyes were blue, and not just any blue they were...well the bluest blue to ever blue could be the only way to describe them, and that was just his eyes. Aside from that he had perpetual sex hair, a lean muscular frame and long slender hands. Everything about him was perfect to Dean, even if Cas couldn't see it himself.

"Ok fine I'm thinking about him can we drop it now?"

"Nope!" Sam says in a cheery tone "It is getting very annoying to have you sitting around thinking about Cas all day"

"Well what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Well you could you know, _ask him out_" Sam says in a tone much more sarcastic than it needs to be

"Yeah but what if we do go out and then we fight and there's just going to be awkwardness seeing as he's my roommate and college dorms are fucking small"

"Dean, have you even considered that maybe Cas like you too? Just ask him for Christ's sake"

"Fine I will just…..not today ok?"

"Yay!"

Dean left Sam's dorm an hour or so later after they made plans to meet at the library to study for their American history class. As he walked back to his dorm room his thoughts drifted to Cas again. Maybe the little weirdo did like him back. Maybe he did have a chance to make something between them.

He just had to have the courage to ask him out first of course.

But maybe, maybe just possibly he could do it. Maybe if Cas was there right when he got back, he would do it.

He was gonna do it.

Dean ran the rest of the way to the dorm, messenger bag flailing behind him. When he got inside he looked between the stairs and the elevator. Their dorm was on the fourth floor, but the elevator could take a long time to get here….That's it, he was taking the stairs.

He took the stairs two at a time as he sprinted up the four flights. He had the courage to do this _now_, he might never get it again but by god was he going to try now. He checked his watch as he flew past the door for the second floor. If he remembered correctly Cas had a class in….half an hour, but it was on the other side of campus and Cas didn't have a car, so he might already be leaving now. He had to hurry.

Dean was starting to get out of breath from all the running when he reached their floor. As he turned off into the hallway he saw some sophomores lounging in the hallway entrance. He pushed past them and into their room in the middle of the hall. He flung the door open and saw that Cas was reading a book on his bed

"Cas," he said, completely out of breath

"Dean?" Cas asked, with a slightly worried look on his face

"hey um.." Dean said trailing off, still slightly catching his breath "Hey, would you like to go out for dinner after your class?"

Castiel frowned slightly and said "I thought we already were"

Dean couldn't help but laugh "No, I mean like a date"

"oh" was all Cas could say

Dean's heart sank "We don't have to it was-I just, um wanted to put that out there in case you wanted to go out too or something. It was stupid I'll just um go" Dean knew he was rambling but he couldn't help it, he was nervous and depressed. He made his way to the door but before he could he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I never gave you an answer" Castiel said as he looked Dean in the eyes, and damn his eyes were really fucking blue

"Yeah?" Dean said very hopeful

Castiel smiled slightly and then suddenly they were kissing, he didn't know who started it but it didn't matter. Cas's lips were warm and his stubble scratched Dean's chin. He tasted like coffee and for some odd reason apples. If there was any doubt that Cas liked him as much as he did then all of it was removed with this kiss. They broke away a moment later when Castiel said

"Yes, Dean I would like to go on a date with you"

Dean couldn't help the giddy smile that spread across his face. Cas' hands were around Dean's neck and Dean's were on Cas' hips. The position brought them very close to each other. They both just stood there smiling at each other, and sometimes kisisng, for what was probably longer than normal, before Cas glanced over at his alarm clock and said

"Shit I've got to go to class, can we continue this later?" Castiel looked genuinely quite sad to be leaving

"Yeah of course, what time should we leave tonight?" Dean said with a small smirk on his face at the thought of actually going on a date with Cas.

"How about 7:00" Cas said as he packed up his laptop bag with all the stuff he'd need for class. Cas leaned in and placed one last kiss on Dean's cheek before he was out the door and on his way to class.

Dean didn't think he could ever be more happy that something worked out.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter four **_

Castiel could hardly pay attention in his class he was so happy. Rarely did things ever work out completely well for him, much less getting a date with his attractive roommate who was clearly just as into him as he was.

As soon as class was over he packed up his stuff and hurried back to their dorm room. He had an hour and a half before Dean was going to pick him up and Dean usually studied with Sam on these days so Cas would have the room to himself to get ready.

Castiel showers and changes from his ripped jeans and a superman shirt to a slightly nicer blue button up and dark black jeans. Not too fancy that it looks like he tried hard but just enough to make him look good.

While he waited for Dean, he got out his laptop and checked his email. He had an email from Gabriel about his most recent trip to Vegas, one of the newsletters from Anna's coffee shop and a do-not-reply email from Tumblr about getting a new follower. Nothing really exciting at all.

Then he started working on his paper for writing class. This was one of the few classes he and Dean had together and their assignment was to find a historical event an write a 10,000 word short story about it in three weeks. He had decided to do a story that takes place in Italy during the bubonic plague, and he needed to research what the architecture and customs were like back then.

It was another hour or so before Dean arrived. He had also changed his clothes into a nicer alternative of a white button up and dark jeans.

"Ready?" Dean asked

"Yeah just let me save and turn off" Castiel replied as he powered down his computer and grabbed his phone and wallet.

"Come on" Dean said, leading the way to the student parking lot

"Where are we going?" Castiel asked

"You'll see" Dean replied with a sly grin

They got in Deans car and drove out of hyde park and onto the freeway. They drove for about twenty minutes before they stopped in the completely different neighborhood of Wicker Park.

"Dean, we didn't have to go this far" Castiel says as he gets out of the car and steps out onto Division street

"Yeah we did, Cas" Dean says and then adds, slightly quieter, "wanted to make it special"  
At that Castiel leans over and kisses Dean on the cheek.

"Thank you, Dean"

They walked hand in hand across the street to a restaurant called _Jerry's_. Their logo is a large red rooster, which Castiel finds pleasing for some reason, and the interior of the restaurant is decorated in a rustic/chic way, with lots of orange, red and brown colors. There are also large chandeliers made out of soup spoons and a large fireplace in the side room.

The server seats them at a small table by the fireplace and hands them menus that have _lots _of different choices of everything.

Castiel ordered the fried green tomato sandwich and Dean ordered what he supposedly always ordered, the "Stoner Grilled Cheese"

"It's genius" Dean said "Its cheddar jack cheese, hot sauce, arugula and mac and cheese. _Mac and cheese_, man."

Castiel couldn't help but smile at that. Food was one of the things that Dean was really passionate about, that his car and his younger brother, who he had mentioned earlier.

* * *

They left the restaurant an hour or so later, getting into Dean's car and driving in companionable silence for about five minutes before anyone spoke.

"So how do you know Sam?" Castiel asked. It was a question that had been nagging at him for a while.

Dean laughed slightly, with a fond look in his eyes as he started to speak

"I've known Sam since freshman year of high school. We were both in this after school club that basically just talked about classic rock, Doctor Who and food, we got along really well so we kept hanging out. She was sorta like the little sister I never had. I think it was good for both of us, see she didn't really make friends well but when she did she would like _never_ get rid of them. Which was good for me cause i had some _serious _abandonment issues back then."

Castiel nodded at that

"Also she had almost the same initials as my brother so that was cool"

"Really?" Castiel asked in surprise

"Yeah my brother's also named Sam and her name also starts with a W like Winchester sooo…."

There was a few more minutes of silence before Cas said

"Thank you for tonight, Dean"

Dean looked at him with a half smile and said

"Seriously? You're thanking me for asking you out?"

"Well I don't usually get asked out by nice guys…." Castiel said quietly, a little embarrassed.

"What guy like you? You're gorgeous Cas I don't know how you don't have hundreds of guys falling head over heels for you."

Castiel blushed at that, and leaned in and kissed Dean on the cheek

"Thank you"

They reached their dorm within three minutes and as they exited the car Dean took Cas's hand in his own as they walked to their building. Castiel leaned into Dean as the walked along. It was a nice way to end the evening, in Cas's opinion. When they reached their room Dean said

"Well, 'night Cas"

Cas quietly said

"It doesn't have to be goodnight" as he played with his jacket hem

Dean smiled at that and pulled Castiel in by the lapels of his jacket, yanking him in to a kiss.

"No, I guess it doesn't" Dean said smiling


End file.
